


Pizza, Wings and Assorted Shenanigans

by aldiara



Category: In Other Lands | The Turn of the Story - Sarah Rees Brennan
Genre: Drabble Day 2019, Drabble Sequence, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Multi, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-14
Updated: 2019-07-14
Packaged: 2020-06-27 22:56:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 1,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19799461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aldiara/pseuds/aldiara
Summary: Just a bunch of loosely connected drabbles in which Elliot attempts to make pizza, meet centaurs, improve his flying comfort, and explain TV, and everyone else is very bemused. 100% silliness guaranteed.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Ratings vary, most of these are Gen but there are a couple Mature ones. Written for [Drabble Day 2019](http://asylums.insanejournal.com/drabbleday/).

The whole thing was a brilliant idea, one of Elliot’s best.

When Serene, Luke and Golden found him in the Sunborns’ kitchen, they seemed, insultingly, not as convinced.

“Oh no,” said Luke. “You’re cooking. Why? Oh no.”

“Shut up, loser,” Elliot told him, manoeuvring his creation into the oven on a garden shovel, since there was nothing resembling a pizza paddle. “I’ve got this.”

“What are you making?” Serene asked, from the safety of the door, with Golden strategically behind her.

“Only the greatest food in the world,” Elliot declared, shoving the oven closed. “It will be a marvellous surprise!”

*

The whole thing was a disaster.

Elliot looked sadly at the three of them: the two people he loved best in the world, plus one he was trying to befriend, and none of them grasping the full devastation of this situation.

“Is it… meant to be floppy bread?” Serene asked, trying to balance the doughy failure in her hands.

“Is it… meant to be half-raw?” Golden asked, worried.

“It’s nice. It’s got cheese on it. Who doesn’t like cheese?” Luke asked loyally. Cheese was dripping gently everywhere.

Elliot sighed dramatically. “I guess I’ll try if Domino’s can cross the Border.”


	2. Chapter 2

“I don’t understand this game at all,” Golden declared. “So it is like theatrics? Actors in a play?”

“But in a tiny box,” Luke supplied helpfully. “And some of the actors are not real, they are green-skinned.”

“Green-screened. And the box is not that tiny,” Elliot corrected him. “Please stop trying to help explain, you’re making it worse.”

Luke looked betrayed. The truth was that Luke was secretly a total geek and Elliot longed to introduce him to Netflix.

Golden still looked thoroughly confused. “And the game goes until…”

“You win or you die,” said Elliot, dramatically. “Team Lannister, obvs.”


	3. Chapter 3

“Elliot.” Luke’s voice was strangled, his hands digging hard into Elliot’s hair (which was okay: Elliot’s hair could take anything). “Wait.”

Elliot had not missed the fact that for all the protesting and hair-tugging, Luke was not actually genuinely trying to stop him. He did not wait, or stop his trail of nibbling kisses down Luke’s stomach. “What?” he murmured, detouring briefly to lick the lovely sharp protrusion of Luke’s hipbone.

Luke gasped, bucking up. “You remember that thing about tents not being – ah – soundproof?”

Elliot grinned, pleased with himself. “You’ll just have to be very quiet then, I guess.”

*

Luke was not very good at being quiet at all, but Elliot was not worried; it was windy outside, and they’d pitched their tent a little distant from the rest.

Even so, he kept a hand over Luke’s mouth as he slowly fucked him in the flickering lamplight, their bodies moving with sweet, banked urgency, Luke’s eyes fixed on Elliot’s the entire time. Elliot had meant to tease him, as ever pleased with how easily Luke responded to him, but it turned out he couldn’t; instead, he bent down to swallow Luke’s desperate noises as they rocked towards oblivion together.


	4. Chapter 4

Sometimes, despite everything, Elliot still had trouble believing this was his life now: leaning out of a tower window, sleepily watching his boyfriend practising his flying.

Against the rosy dawn sky, Luke was a streak of gold and ivory, describing graceful loops in the chilly air. Until he dropped like a stone towards the lake.

Elliot cried out even as Luke’s wings spread wide and he soared smoothly towards the window. 

“What the _hell_ was that?” 

Luke grinned. “Impressed?”

“You jerk,” Elliot grumbled, but when Luke pulled him through the window, he came easily. Luke would never let him fall.


	5. Chapter 5

Sometimes Elliot dreams about the world he left, the world that for so long was just _the_ world, not one of multiple options. 

When he’s awake, he can hold entire presentations on that other world and the wonders it holds (carbonated beverages, stereos, the forever-lost wonder of central heating).

His dreams are different: at best, his father’s grey, apathetic face, or mundane memories of being bullied.

At worst, he flails awake gasping, kicking at the sheets, until Luke pulls him in, all warm skin and wings and sleepy reassurance. “Shhh. You’re safe. Your dad?”

“Guns,” Elliot murmurs numbly, burrowing close.


	6. Chapter 6

“Commander! Commander, have you SEEN who’s just arrived?”

Commander Woodsinger looked thoroughly unimpressed at having her office invaded, and much too apathetic considering the situation. “Yes, as a matter of fact I do know the centaurs are here, since they sent me word weeks ago… Stand down, Schafer, you are _not_ going to meet them!”

“What? Why? Because I don’t speak their language?”

“No, because they’re somewhat, uh, sexually promiscuous, and…”

“Oooh, so maybe I do speak their language.”

“…and are apparently naturally inclined towards redheads...”

“I _am_ their language!” 

“I will lock you up if I have to – _SCHAFER_!”

*

Centaurs were the worst and their hard-partying ways had been very much exaggerated. Elliot appreciated that they’d been very reasonable and professional while treaty negotiations went on, but after lunch, some genius had decided it might be fun to play Trigon, the most boring game under the sun.

The only vaguely pleasing thing about it was that the centaurs were great at jumping and actually made Luke’s team work for their win for a change, but that was small consolation. Elliot took the hugest book he could find to the most prominent seat and read aggressively through the entire game.

*

Centaurs were super-fun, Elliot decided, five ciders in and going strong. He might finally have broken his unlucky streak with mythological horse-types. The treaties were signed and settled; the night was warm, fireflies glittering in the trees and actual fires spitting sparks into the velvet sky, and everyone was partying. Elliot had been flirted with by no fewer than three hot centaurs, and when Luke had felt it necessary to drape himself all over Elliot and glower, the frank offers had simply been expanded to include both of them. Luke was blushing non-stop, which was hilarious, and centaurs were _awesome_.

*

“You’re drunk,” Luke murmured into his ear, sounding relaxed and amused, which was rare for Luke at a party, especially with flirtatious centaurs watching. He was glowy and golden in the firelight and it was all a very unfair ploy. Elliot was not going to get ployed. Employed. Something.

He scoffed at Luke. “ _You’re_ drunk.”

“Am not!”

“You’re dancing with me,” Elliot pointed out. Luke looked aghast to discover this was true. Elliot felt the hunch in Luke’s shoulders, the embarrassed need to move away, and reeled him back in, moving their hips together.

Luke breathed deep, and let him.


	7. Chapter 7

Elliot didn’t think he’d ever get over the dizzy thrill of flying. Admittedly there were degrees of comfort that could be improved upon. He didn’t particularly enjoy being swooped at great speed from the ground or dangled uncomfortably by the armpits.

This, though, he could get used to: Luke on his back, wings beating slowly, with Elliot sprawled on top of him. The back-flying thing was new. Elliot was still not convinced it was aerodynamically sound, but hey. It got him flying in comfort. With perks.

“Elliot,” Luke protested when Elliot leaned forward to nibble at his neck. “That’s distracting.”

*

“Distracting is helpful,” Elliot told him, inching forward a bit so they could kiss. Kissing was different in the air, with the wind in their hair and Luke’s lips slightly cool. Elliot loved it.

“Helpful how?” Luke demanded, a tad breathless. His hands, which had been holding Elliot in place, were moving restlessly, his wingbeat less steady.

“Well if you’re in battle while flying-“

“They’ll be attacking me, not kissing- argh!”

Tickling had been a bad idea, Elliot thought as he toppled sideways, into the void below. 

Luke hauled him back before he slipped away. “I’m making you a harness.”


	8. Chapter 8

Elliot had finally done it. There was peace in the Borderlands; he would not have to watch his friends and his boyfriend go to war. He had a knitted sweater from his sort-of father-in-law, he’d smuggled a proper guitar across the Border, and most importantly, he had brought boxes and boxes of junk food and everyone he loved would finally know true jubilation.

“Is this food?” Golden asked sceptically, fingering a doughnut. 

Luke already had two in his mouth, which should be physically impossible.

“Oh my god,” he kept saying in between. “Oh my god! I’ll never know hunger again.”

*

Serene preferred the pizza, although she categorically refused to even compare it to what Elliot had been trying to cook.

“ _This_ I understand,” she declared, inhaling a slice. “This cheese has purpose.”

“Cheese always has purpose.”

“Your cheese did not.”

“Shut up. I brought you delicious sustenance when you were hungry. Be grateful.”

“It is very good,” Golden conceded, “but extremely messy. It would be much more efficient if you folded it, like this?”

Elliot stared at the folded offering in total disgust. “Golden-Hair-Scented-Like-Summer! I can’t believe I introduced you to pizza and you immediately perverted it into a _calzone_!”

*

Later that night, when everyone was in a food coma, they went to the lake. The water was warm enough to swim, but everyone agreed that they would sink like stones in their current state, and they stayed on shore.

Luke and Golden had both eaten more than seemed humanly – or elvishly – possible. Luke had fallen semi-asleep sprawled against a tree, with Elliot pulled back against his chest. Golden had collapsed in Serene’s lap.

It was peaceful. Elliot looked at Serene and found her smiling. Smiling back, he entwined their fingers. They sat in silence, wrapped in the summer night.


End file.
